Doctors From Ahmedabad, Delhi Are Now Flagging Deadly COVID-linked Fungal Infection
A rapidly growing rare fatal fungal disease, triggered mostly in patients who have recovered from COVID-19 has surfaced in New Delhi.?
In the last 10 days, doctors at Sir Ganga Ram hospital of the capital have witnessed more than 12 cases of?Covid-19?triggered Mucormycosis fungus.?The fungal infection causes loss of eyesight, removal of the nose and jaw bone, and 50 per cent mortality in cases where it affects the brain ¡ª within 15 days. Out of the 12, five have died and three others are critical.?
2 out 5 died in Ahmedabad?
This after?five cases of the fungal infection have been reported in Ahmedabad, among patients who were battling coronavirus or had recently recovered from the illness, according to a report in the?Times of India.?
Of these two died and two among the survivors have lost their eyesight.
Four of the five were males between the age of 34 and 47; the fifth was a 67-year-old man from Bhuj. All showed enlarged eyeballs, which were bulging out of their sockets, the?TOI?report said.
The patients had unusually high sugar and low immunity and were on steroids.
Deadly fungal infection explained
Black Fungus or Mucormycosis has been a cause of disease and deaths in Transplants, ICU and Immunodeficient individuals for a long time. However,?it is the rapid increase in numbers seen in recovering COVID-19 patients which is a cause of alarm.??
The deadly fungal infection could be prevented if the physicians treating COVID-19 patients are mindful of how much steroids are being given as immunity suppressants to ease breathing issues.?
Manish Munjal, senior ENT surgeon at Sir Ganga Ram hospital, told The Indian Express, ¡°The frequency with which we are witnessing the occurrence of Covid triggered mucormycosis with high morbidity and mortality is alarming. Early clinical suspicion on symptoms such as nose obstruction, swelling in the eye or cheeks, and black dry crusts in the nose should immediately prompt a biopsy and start of the antifungal therapy as early as possible.¡±??
Symptoms of Black Fungus
Amongst the symptoms, the persisting nose infection, stuffy dry nose and crusting, numb cheeks, redness of eyes, loosening of teeth due to weakening of jaws are immediate causes which need medical attention.?The ENT surgeons take samples for culture and start definitive medical treatment which might prevent medical loss.
Elderly, diabetics and those with low immunity are most prone to contract the fungal infection. It¡¯s contagious from contact and touch of contaminated surfaces and infected mouldy objects. Following a hygienic lifestyle, washing hands and disinfecting surfaces may aide as a precaution.??
Early detection can prevent loss of eyesight, nose or jaw through clinical intervention, doctors said. Dr Shaloo Bageja, a senior eye surgeon at the hospital, said, ¡°Orbital involvement (the bony cavity that contains the eyeball) is a grave development in the course of this disease, and points not only towards the possibility of permanent loss of eyesight but life as well because brain involvement is the leading cause of death in mucormycosis.¡±
